The CDC is using this new study on an outbreak of COVID-19 in Provincetown, Mass in July to justify the new mask guidance, but get this — White House Deputy Press Secretary Chris Meagher thinks that this Washington Post headline on that data is “scary sounding,” noting that only four people went to the hospital and zero died.
In other words, the CDC issued new mask guidance in spite of only four people getting hospitalized and zero dying? What is happening?
Not noted in this scary sounding headline: only four out of 346 people went to the hospital. Zero died.
Get vaccinated. https://t.co/nuvXICLSbM
— chrismeagher46 (@chrismeagher46) July 30, 2021
But he’s not alone. Here’s Media Matters’s Matthew Gertz calling out the Post as well:
Please don't do this.
Provincetown has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country.
As vaccination rates increase the percentage of cases that are in vaccinated people NECESSARILY increases. pic.twitter.com/23DurW6xfa
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) July 30, 2021
And the media strikes again:
This is a Rorschach test. What I'm seeing is ~900 people tested positive; only a handful hospitalized; no deaths. https://t.co/eUrSEed7jv
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) July 30, 2021
Alternative headline: “Only 4 vaxxed ppl were hospitalized”:
CDC published key data it used to change its mask guidance. Three fourths of ppl infected in a Massachusetts outbreak were vaccinated and could spread the virus to each other. But only 4 vaxxed ppl were hospitalized. w/ @Carolynyjohnson @JoelAchenbach https://t.co/Fxg7vqKCFf
— Yasmeen Abutaleb (@yabutaleb7) July 30, 2021
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And zero people died:
Of which ZERO — 0 — ZILCH
Z
E
R
ODied.
Strangely enough, Washington Post doesn't think that detail is worth mentioning in their story. Weird! https://t.co/INUrJttUhl
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) July 30, 2021
Keep in mind, Twitter is now helping spread the panic:
Do you expect them to do math?
77% of Vermonters are fully vaccinated compared to 43% of Alabamans, if breakthrough cases make up a higher percentage of Vermont's caseload that doesn't mean the vaccine works better in Alabama.
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) July 30, 2021
Well, it’s not like we’re 18 months into a pandemic or anything like that where having journos that understand basic statistics is something that might be important:
I 100% think that this happens because journalists, like most people, often including myself, do not have a firm handle on statistical reasoning. https://t.co/MJYygT1xAn
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) July 30, 2021
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